The Canadanian Perspective: A look at Toronto's Local Heroes

It’s been a banner year for Canadian cinema. Earlier this year, thecountry rejoiced in the success of Atom Egoyan’s “The Sweet Hereafter,”the first Canadian-made film to be nominated for two Academy Awards,including best director. Then, Don McKellar’s “Last Night” won the Prixde les jeunesse at the Cannes Film Festival. Now, this celebration hasbeen brought home.

Perspective Canada, one of the many programs at the TorontoInternational Film Festival, is well… a celebration of contemporaryCanadian film. With a record number of submissions at 366 entries (89features, 277 shorts), up from 284 (81 features, 203 shorts) theprevious year, proof is positive that Canada is currently experiencing afilmmaking renaissance. In the end, 62 films were accepted (19 featuresand 42 shorts) to be screened in Perspective Canada, 10 of which wereworld premieres.

1998 was clearly the year of Don McKellar, which may have caused a weebit of discomfort for the rather down-to-earth Canadian icon. McKellar,already recognized for his popular Canadian TV series “Twitch City” andhis performances in Bruce McDonald’s cult classics “Roadkill” and“Highway 61,” was involved in six films screened at the festival.

The Toronto International Film Festival opened with the Canada/Italyco-production “The Red Violin,” which was co-written by McKellar anddirector Francois Girard. McKellar also appears in “The Red Violin” asa violin restoration expert who along with an auction appraiser playedby Samuel L. Jackson, solve the mystery of the eponymous stringedinstrument.

The Perspective Canada programme opened with McKellar’s “Last Night”,his feature directorial debut, which he also acted in and wrote. “LastNight” grapples with and answers some difficult questions on the eveningof the world’s end: Who Should I be with? Where will I go? and Whatshould I do if the world is ending? The world’s end was the last thingon the mind of revelers at the “Last Night” party, which for one briefmoment became the epicenter of Canadian pop culture (and yes, in Canada,it is spelled “epicentre”) with top actors (Sarah Polley, Maury Chaykin)mingling with musical superstars (The Philosopher Kings, Sloan). Fiddlesensation Ashley MacIsaac, seen in last year’s festival fave “TheHanging Garden,” hopped onto the bar for a frenetic performance to getthe crowd going. “Last Night” picked up the prestigious CityTV Award forBest Canadian First Feature.

Among McKellar’s other contributions to the festival were the ingeniousshort film “Elimination Dance,” which he acted in and co-created withBruce McDonald and Michael Ondaatje (author of “The English Patient“),and a notable cameo in the feature “The Herd,” a National Film Boardproduction about an Arctic Moses from “Project Grizzly” director PeterLynch. A retrospective honoring the tenth anniversary of the CanadianFilm Centre included the remainder of the McKellar oeuvre on display.

Besides McKellar, the lineup for Perspective Canada included ten featuredebuts, up from eight in 1997. Included among the newcomers is thewitty hyphenate John Kalangis, writer, director and actor of “Jack andJill.” This lighthearted romantic comedy is produced by Simone Urdl,executive produced by Atom Egoyan and distributed by AllianceReleasing. Director Amnon Buchbinder discovered the script for hisfeature debut “The Fishing Trip” while teaching screenwriting atToronto’s York University. The film deals with the oft-explored topicof incest, but was noted for strong performances from its young cast.Kids In The Hall’s Bruce McCulloch made his feature debut with “DogPark,” which features an eclectic cast of Natasha Henstridge, LukeWilson, Kathleen Robertson and Janeane Garafalo, who ranks only secondto McKellar for the festival’s unofficial appearances-in-most-filmsaward.

Canada’s West Coast was well represented with Bruce Sweeney’s secondfeature and Sundance screener, “Dirty“, Raul Sanchez Inglis’ featuredebut “The Falling” which he also wrote, and Jonathan Tammuz’ “Rupert’sLand“. The dark and twisted “Dirty” surprised some fans of Sweeney’shumorous debut “Live Bait,” a previous winner of the CityTV Award,although Sweeny’s adherence to the Mike Leigh school of filmmakingalways results in very engaging work from his actor/collaborators TomScholtze and Babz Chula. “Rupert’s Land” is being distributed in Canadaby Red Sky Entertainment and stars British-born Samuel West (“Howard’sEnd“), Ian Tracey (“Free Willy III“), and George Wendt (“Cheers“). Itsa road movie about two estranged half-brothers who reunite for a journeyof rediscovery en route to their father’s funeral. “The Falling” is adark and tragic love story that manipulated audiences by telling a storyfrom three people’s different point’s of view a la “Rashomon.” Both“The Falling” and “Rupert’s Land” were shot by 1997 Genie-nominatedcinematographer Greg Middleton (“Kissed“), a rising star on the WestCoast.

Quebec was represented by a number of movies, including two featuredebuts from segment directors of the popular 1997 omnibus feature“Cosmos“: Manon Briand’s “2 Seconds” and Denis Villeneuve’s “Un 32 aoutsur terre.” The only film from Canada’s East Coast represented in theprogramme was John Doyle’s “Extraordinary Visitor,” another featuredebut. Some notable Canadian comedic talent, namely Mary Walsh (“ThisHour Has Twenty Two Minutes“) and Andy Jones “(Codco“), appear in thishumorous exploration of human compassion.

Every year, the Toronto International Film Festival, CityTV andRothman’s World Film host a giant schmooze for Canadian filmmakers atthe ChumCity Building, home of the Canadian version of Bravo! and themusic video network MuchMusic. Held on Friday, September 11th, glitterystars, filmmakers and wannabes crowded into the parking lot where amakeshift tent was erected to toast the Canadian talent. Benny andJerry’s ice cream even got in on the action with complimentary ice creamcones. Notable celebrities at the party included Billy Zane, ChristianSlater, and Canadian actor Saul Rubinek (“True Romance“) who was in townwith his directorial feature debut, “Jerry and Tom.” The extra kick tothis party was that it was broadcast live on CityTV (with highlights toappear on both Bravo! and MuchMusic).

The shorts selections in Perspective Canada were continuously sold out,and included a diverse and entertaining selection. Commercial directorTim Hamilton’s “Shrink,” dazzled with more optical effects than atypical feature, but used them to enhance his storytelling technique.Popular festival shorts such as David Birdsell’s “Phil Touches Flo,”Jennifer Kierans’ “The Rogers’ Cable,” and Nathan Garfinkel’s “Sploosh!“made appearances in their directors’ homeland.

Best Canadian Feature Film was awarded to “No“, a Quebec film by RobertLepage. His first feature, “Le confessionnal” opened the TorontoFestival in 1995 and went on to win a number of Genie Awards for BestFilm, Best Artistic Direction and Best Direction. The province ofQuebec paid tribute to Lepage mid-festival by hosting a reception at theCN Tower, the world’s tallest man-made structure, where the bar includeda drink named in his honor.

[Jason Margolis and Maureen Prentice are partners in Vancouver’s JumpCommunications Inc., a company with several music videos and short filmsto its credit.]